Editorial Policy

Credit decisions can have lasting effects on people’s finances, so we hold our content to clear standards. This page explains what those are. If we fall short of them, please tell us.

Our principles

• Accuracy over speed. If we cannot confirm a claim, we do not state it as fact.
• Readers first. We write to help people understand a topic, not to push them toward an application.
• Honesty about limits. We say when something varies by issuer or person, and we do not promise approval, score changes or savings.
• Plain language. We explain financial terms instead of hiding behind them.

How we research

We start from primary sources. These include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, AnnualCreditReport.com, laws and regulations, and issuers’ own contracts and product pages. Where scoring is concerned, we also rely on what the scoring companies publish about their own models. We do not use affiliate websites as the only support for a financial claim.

How we verify information

• Key facts are checked against the source they are attributed to, and sources are listed in the article.
• Figures that change, such as average interest rates, are shown with the date or period they refer to.
• Worked examples are marked as hypothetical. We calculate them ourselves and check them against our calculators.
• Card terms are only published after they have been verified against issuer documents, with a “last checked” date. See our methodology.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it. When a correction changes the meaning of an article, we say what changed. Readers can report possible errors using our contact form.

Updates

We review articles when laws, regulations or data they rely on change. An article shows an “Updated” date only when it has actually been revised. We do not change dates to make old content look new.

How we use AI tools

AI tools may help us research, draft, edit and check our content. We are telling you this because you should know how our work is made. Our rules are:

• AI output is a draft. It is not treated as a source.
• Factual claims must trace back to a source that we have checked.
• We do not publish content in bulk just to rank in search results. Each page has to be useful in its own right.
• We do not use AI to invent quotes, testimonials, expert reviews or credentials.

The CreditPilot Editorial byline refers to this process, not to a single individual. We do not claim that a credentialed financial professional has reviewed an article unless one actually has, in which case we will name that person.

Editorial independence

Advertisers and commercial partners do not choose what we write or what we conclude. Our writers decide coverage based on what readers need. Ads, when present, are labeled and placed separately from article content.

Conflicts of interest

At this time, CreditPilot has no affiliate agreements with card issuers. If we enter a commercial relationship, we will disclose it on our Affiliate Disclosure and Advertising Disclosure pages. A commercial relationship creates an incentive, and we think it is better to tell you about it than to claim it does not exist.

Anyone writing for us must disclose financial interests related to the subject, such as owning shares in an issuer or receiving payment from one.

Reviews and testimonials

We do not publish invented reviews, ratings or testimonials. We do not claim to have tested a product unless we have.